IELTS Writing: Introductions to Discussion Essays
"Some people believe that physical education should be a mandatory subject in the school curriculum. Others, however, think that children should exercise at home, and spend more time on core subjects at school. Discuss."
Above is an example of IELTS Writing Task 2 question which is asking for a discussion-based response.
How do we know it is a discussion question? Simple: it gives the candidate two opposing views and asks the reader to discuss both. What are the two opposing views in the ...

IELTS Reading: The Number One Rule
Record keywords. That's it. That's the number one rule for IELTS Reading preparation.
Okay, let's look a little closer.
The IELTS Reading test is essentially a vocabulary test. It tests your range of vocabulary. If you have a wide range of vocabulary, you'll understand that "not many people seemed to be concerned" is almost the same as saying "there appeared to be little interest". If you don't have a wide enough range of vocabulary, you won't make that ...

IELTS Writing: A Common Misconception
A common misconception about Writing Task 2 is that you must not state your opinion in the first paragraph.
This is wrong! Whether you state your opinion in the introduction or not depends on the question type.
If the question asks you 'Do you think...?', 'Do you agree...?', 'What is your opinion...?', or anything like this, then STATE YOUR OPINION IN THE INTRODUCTION!
To achieve band 7 and above, you must 'present a clear position throughout the response', and this ...

IELTS Reading: How to Speed-Read
The IELTS Reading test is no place for slow readers. There are a number of problems that slow readers face:
Not finishing the texts
Panicking under the pressure of time constraints
Reading sections that are not important and will not help to answer the questions
No extra accuracy
Quick and accurate readers, on the other hand, hold many advantages:
Faster understanding of the text
Confidence in beating the clock
More time at the end to check your answers
A wider variety of texts to practice on ...

IELTS Writing: Don't Make This Mistake
One of the best things you can do in your IELTS Writing preparation is to carefully look over the official IELTS Writing band descriptors.
Look through the Coherence and Cohesion section and something should stand out for achieving band 7: Presents a clear central topic within each paragraph.
What does this mean? This means that you must talk about one idea and one idea only in each paragraph. One of the biggest and most common mistakes students make is that they try to ...

IELTS Writing: 3 Steps to a Perfect Task 2 Introduction
Struggling with how to get started on IELTS Writing Task 2? Watch the video for a 3-step method to achieve a band 7+ introduction.
http://youtu.be/8kOkhOtDw00

IELTS Speaking: Keep It Simple
In Part 1, you want to make a good first impression on the examiner. You want to show him how good your English is, why you deserve a high score. This is good.
Because of this, you may think it is a good idea to use big, advanced-sounding words, complex sentence structures, and to talk until you're out of breath. This is not good.
The number one most important thing in IELTS Speaking Part 1 is clarity. You must be as clear ...

IELTS Listening: Gap-fill Summary Completion
Listen to this talk on the history of marriage and fill in the gaps in the summary below. This talk is typical of Part 4 in the IELTS Listening test, where a talk will be given by one person in an academic setting.
http://youtu.be/ZZZ6QB5TSfk
Write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each answer.
Most of the things said about marriage are trying to convey an 1)___________ truth. But definitions change with culture and values.
10,000 years ago, marriage was a way of establishing rights ...

IELTS Speaking: Contrasting Ideas
If you want a high IELTS score, it's important in the Speaking exam to demonstrate your ability to use English for complex purposes, such as developing an argument, or changing a listener's opinion.
One way to demonstrate your command in this area is to use specific language to contrast opposite ideas.
Here are four words and phrases you can use to contrast ideas, along with a couple examples of each:
However, ...
Public transport in my city is slow, and the buses ...

IELTS Grammar: Introducing Examples
It is important to offer examples of your ideas in both the Writing and Listening components of the IELTS exam, as these will strengthen your ideas and improve their coherency.
There are a number of different phrases we can use introduce examples, though we do not always use them in the same way.
For instance and For example
For instance and For example usually appear at the beginning of sentences, and are followed by a comma.
There are many ways to improve your IELTS score. For example, you could ...